Growing up in Toronto, Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman and his four brothers stick to the games — basketball, football and outdoor ball hockey, ice hockey at local arenas, and whatever Mario or Super Smash Bros. games on the console connected to the home TV.
In 2011, at the age of 19, Hyman left home to play hockey at the University of Michigan. Now if he wants to bond with his brothers, it’s by phone, text, and email. His youngest brother is 8 years old, which makes that kind of communication a challenge. Then Hyman discovered the long distance game.
“Instead of talking on the phone for five minutes, we would sit there with headphones and play video games for three hours and just talk about anything—everything,” Hyman recalls.
It was a revelation, what he described as an “aha” moment. Gaming can be more than just sitting in the basement with your brothers; it can connect you even if you are hundreds of miles away.
Today, gaming is not only a fun way to spend time with Hyman, but it’s also a business. Co-owner of a Toronto-based company Eleven Holdings Corp., he helps navigate a company that owns and operates a portfolio of esports and gaming businesses, including SoaR Gaming LLC and Eleven Gaming Corp.
The main company, SoaR Gaming, is competitive Valuable substance , maintains a list of 20 to 30 content creators and has amassed over 21 million fans worldwide, generating over 400 million impressions on social media platforms monthly. It supports many charities and boasts a growing number of branded affiliates, including Asus, Royal Bank of Canada and Freetrade.
Hyman isn’t the only athlete with a financial stake in the esports and gaming space—Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry and Odell Beckham Jr. is one of a number of professionals who have invested in companies similar to Eleven Holdings. A few NBA stars are part owners of FaZeClanHyman’s business partner, Oliver Silverstein, considers Eleven Holdings’ most notable competitor.
But it’s safe to say that Hyman’s path to the business side of the game is unique. Investment alone is not enough for him. As the son of a businessman, he wanted to learn about the esports and gaming industry from the inside while playing hockey.
“I think it’s important for any athlete to have other interests so they can clear their mind and not think about hockey 24/7,” he said.
Here, it is important to point out that Hyman actually has other interests. He has a wife, a toddler son and a baby on the way. He is writing award-winning, best-selling books Children’s books since I was a student at the University of Michigan. Since joining the Oilers as a free agent last summer, he is having the best year of his career, with a record number of goals and points. So it’s not as if hockey is an afterthought. More than that, he has a lot of energy that needs an outlet.
“When you are a hockey player and an athlete, you have a certain amount of time to spend on the field and you focus on hockey, and then when you come home from the field compete, you take care of your body,” he said. “But really, there’s a lot of downtime.”
